Silversong wrote:I've been on the social committee at work for two years, planning the staff holiday party, and you would not believe how people complain about free food. Two paid hours away from work, at some restaurant, eating free restaurant food, and all we hear is, "I don't like ethnic foods" >_<

What if you told them... other people don't necessarily enjoy the food that is culturally associated with their ethnicity?

"Question twelve: when a customer asks for extra sauce on their chicken teriyaki sub, what is the appropriate reply? Is it 1. Right on, 2. You got it, chief, 3. Roger dodger, 4. Coolsville, or 5. Boy howdy?"

In the 2000 film X-Men, there is a scene where Wolverine comments on the characters' outfits. Cyclops responds, "What would you prefer, yellow spandex?"

It's funny because in the comics that the film is based on, the character of Wolverine wears yellow spandex.

It's a decent enough gag; it calls attention to how visual designs that work in comics don't always translate well on-screen. It also acknowledges the inherent silliness of the superhero genre and distances itself from it, which was necessary in drawing a distinction to 1997's Batman and Robin, a film which leaned hard into the silly stuff and did so poorly at the box office that it temporarily killed the franchise.

It is now 2017. Superhero movies and TV shows are everywhere, and they are extremely popular. Multiple superhero films have grossed over a billion dollars, with a "b".

And yet, their writers still feel the need to keep making that same fucking yellow spandex joke.

In Tuesday night's episode of Legends of Tomorrow (which was overall pretty good, and had George Lucas in it), Citizen Steel started referring to the bad guys as the Legion of Doom ("it's from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from when I was a kid"). Everybody makes fun of him for it. Sara Lance, in particular, rolls her eyes and says "I'm not calling them that."

Yes, because you wouldn't want to refer to Malcolm Merlyn, Eobard Thawne, and Damien Darhk as the Legion of Doom. Because that name is silly.

There's nothing wrong with making fun of superhero tropes on a superhero show. (In fact, this week Arrow did a pretty good job of poking fun at superhero resurrection.) But if you're going to do it, give us something a little more insightful than "haha, stuff in superhero comics sure is embarrassing!"

When I lived with roommates near a pond, a bunch of Canadian geese decided it would be cool to roost under my window and honk at me every morning. I tried to talk some sense into them but you can't reason with a Canadian.

Friday wrote:When I lived with roommates near a pond, a bunch of Canadian geese decided it would be cool to roost under my window and honk at me every morning. I tried to talk some sense into them but you can't reason with a Canadian.

My older brother used to shoot mockingbirds in the back yard with his pellet rifle, but then again he's kind of an asshole. He claimed they were too loud and woke him up in the morning, which is funny considering he's been partially deaf since he was three years old.

EDIT: Now my boss is looking at me funny for stifling that laugh. Damn you, Mongrel!

: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

Atheists in fantasy settings where gods clearly and unambiguously exist.

The other day I watched an episode of SHIELD. Somebody asked if Ghost Rider was an Inhuman; somebody else responded that he says he isn't, he got his powers by making a deal with the devil. Fitz scoffs and says that's impossible; Coulson says he's inclined to agree.

These are guys who, between the two of them, have met no fewer than three literal Norse gods, and last season fought an ancient demon that could reanimate and possess corpses. But they roll their eyes at the guy whose head turns into a flaming skull when he claims he got his powers from a figure from Abrahamic mythology.

Now, the show did address how you can be an atheist in the MCU early on; Fitz/Simmons had a conversation where they said Thor and Loki aren't really gods, they're aliens who the Norse mistook for gods. And that's fine! "Magic is just science we don't understand" is a time-honored trope for dealing with rationalism in a fantasy setting.

But even allowing for that, their response to Ghost Rider's "deal with the devil" claim shouldn't be to dismiss it out of hand. The conversation should be something like, "Well, he could be lying, or he could be wrong about where his powers came from. But it could also be that the 'devil' he's referring to is Loki. Or possibly there's another alien who knows science we don't understand and has a penchant for making ironic deals with people."

Recently the pattern company Simplicity sponsored a lolita convention then released a pattern that appeared to be a compilation of designs copied from indie brand items being sold at said convention. The con released an official statement saying that they and Simplicity both had received many death threats and threats of violence. Over a sewing pattern.

Why do such a disproportionate amount of internet posters have apparently zero sense of empathy, let alone a sense of scale or reason?